"The extent to which cloud seeding has exaggerated
the flood is still to be determined of course, but the evidence from
previous cloud seeding operations is that it works and therefore it will
have exaggerated the flood to some extent," he said.

"The Hydro has always claimed positive results from cloud seeding."

George Mills said he could hear the flight on Sunday morning, and wondered what was going on.
"We
want to understand whether the cloud seeding has helped to create this
massive flood from the local rivers which we've never ever seen," he
said.

"If the Hydro have had something to do with that with their
cloud seeding, well we want to understand that because in the future we
need to have closer information."

Hydro 'not in position' to comment

Hydro
Tasmania will not answer questions about both Sunday's cloud seeding
flight and its policies on using the technique when there are current
flood warnings.

What is cloud seeding?

"It involves the introduction
of additional particles into suitable clouds to encourage the formation
and growth of ice crystals or raindrops and thus increase the amount of
precipitation that will fall from the cloud"

A spokeswoman said it would be inappropriate to comment.

"At this point Hydro Tasmania is not in a position to provide more information," she said.

"Experience suggests that in the aftermath of a severe natural disaster such as this some form of government inquiry follows.

"In
light of the unfortunate death of one person, and with grave fears for
two people still missing, there is likely to be at least a coronial
inquest."

The community of Ouse has been left devastated by the
floods, which arrived with little warning in the early hours of Monday
morning.

Farmers in the district have reported the loss of hundreds of sheep and cattle, and significant infrastructure losses.

Bureau had flood warnings in place

The Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed flood warnings were in place for regions of Tasmania when the flight took place.

"The
first media release alerting the Tasmanian community to likely impacts
of the event was issued on Friday 3 June," a weather bureau spokesperson
said.